LAN Characteristics

LANs are grouped according to four key characteristics:

  • The types of transmission media over which they can operate

  • The transport technique they use to transmit data over the network (that is, broadband or baseband)

  • The access method, which is involved in determining who gets to use the network and when they get to use it

  • The topology, or mapping, of the network (that is, the physical and logical connections between the nodes on the network)

The following sections describe each of these four characteristics in detail.

LAN Transmission Media

Chapter 3, “Transmission Media: Characteristics and Applications,” describes the advantages and disadvantages of the media types, and this section talks specifically about the considerations ...

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